Month: March 2009

Eat What?

I have heard of some novel ways to raise money….but this one is just sick!

The AP ran a story recently that was an eye opener……and gave me feelings of sympathy for some bulls.

The fundraising idea may seem a little nuts, but Oakdale‘s annual Testicle Festival is always a big hit. On Monday, volunteers with the town’s Rotary Club plan to fry up 400 pounds of the private parts of bulls and serve them to diners who pay $50 apiece for the sit-down meal.

The event, whose proceeds also benefit the Oakland Cowboy Museum, has drawn an average of 450 people and last year raised $28,000.

It’s common practice on cattle ranches for young male bovines to be castrated into steers, which after the initial loss, eventually makes them more docile and easier to handle. Fans of the delicacy, also referred to as “mountain oysters,” come from around the state.

According to Rotarians, everyone who buys a ticket is guaranteed to “have a ball.”

450 people are sucking down “nuts” but at least it is for a good cause……huh?

What Would You Expect From Gramm?

I recently read a piece in the WSJ written by Sen. Phil Gramm defending a piece of legislation from 1999 that has been linked to the present economic crisis, the Gramm-Leah-Bliley Act (GLBA).

GLB repealed part of the Great Depression era Glass-Steagall Act, and allowed banks, securities companies and insurance companies to affiliate under a Financial Services Holding Company. It seems clear that if GLB was the problem, the crisis would have been expected to have originated in Europe where they never had Glass-Steagall requirements to begin with. Also, the financial firms that failed in this crisis, like Lehman, were the least diversified and the ones that survived, like J.P. Morgan, were the most diversified.

Moreover, GLB didn’t deregulate anything. It established the Federal Reserve as a superregulator, overseeing all Financial Services Holding Companies. All activities of financial institutions continued to be regulated on a functional basis by the regulators that had regulated those activities prior to GLB.

Well said Phil……you remember Gramm from last October when he said that the people were just whining…when the economy was in a nose dive.

In an paper written for the Journal of Economics and Finance this is the critique of the GLBA:

This paper examines the impact of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act across three main sectors of the financial services industry: commercial banks, insurance companies, and brokerage firms, taking account of the wealth effect associated with the announcement. We find that the law has a differential impact across the financial services industry. All three industries have gained due to this law with commercial banks benefiting most, followed by the insurance industry. Further, the results show that larger firms benefited more in both the banking and insurance industries and exposure to systematic risk was reduced for all sectors of the financial services industry after this regulation passed.

If I recall correctly, Congress is pissed at CEOs because some will not accept responsibility for what they have created…a crisis….and yet some in Congress try to find others to take the rap for bad legislation…seldom do you hear any of them take responsibility for the monsters they create.

This guy is just worried that he will be blamed openly and hurt his chances of staying in the Senate.  As usual, it is all about them personally….never about the screwing they have put on the people.  Listening to these guys just makes a case for early schooling of kids in economics…..then these types of people could not get away with the lies they inflict on the population.

A Teleprompter?

Much has been said about the president’s use of a teleprompter, most of it criticism, but really guys, is that a necessary story that needs so much attention?

I mean what about the rise in violence in Afghanistan, or the next round of Americans to be deployed to Afghanistan or the IMF saying that the economic situation could lead to many conflicts and possibly war or the KBR got a contract to unscrew their shower screw up in Iraq, on and on……

I believe I can find lots to write about and the teleprompter would not be anywhere on the list, until I see all the crap being reported.  Something has to be said.  You have got talking heads saying just how unnecessary it is, but they are working off a teleprompter.  I have watch some commentators on FOX and MSNBC, to mention only a few, that have turn this into something it is not…..a story and news.

Personally, I find this whole thing a bit unprofessional, petty and extremely pathetic.  And these people are the ones that bitch the loudest about bloggers…sorry, had to chuckle just a bit.

A Shocking Turn Of Events

I have had several posts about the electrocution of American soldiers in Iraq while taking a shower.
Last year, 94 troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan or other Central Command countries sought medical treatment for electric shock, according to Defense Department health data. KBR’s database lists 231 electric shock incidents in the more than 89,000 facilities the company runs in Iraq, according to military records.

The military is racing to inspect more than 90,000 U.S.-run facilities across Iraq to reduce a deadly threat troops face far off the battlefield: electrocution or shock while showering or using appliances.
The Defense Contract Management Agency has accepted KBR’s plans to corect the problems, according to the document the AP obtained. It said the agency will closely oversee KBR’s work.

Cool, KBR gets the contract to unscrew that which they have screwed up.  If they are responsible should not it be part of their standing contract to guarantee their work or replace it?  If not, why not?

I guess that the no bid contracts have their advantages after all.  They can get paid for screwing up something and then on the backside get paid to fix their screw up…not a bad gig if you can get it.  Now I know why everyone scrambles to get government contracts.

Is There An Alternative?

With the prospects for a landmark pro-union proposal looking increasingly shaky in Congress, senators in both parties are seeking other ways to reform labor laws, potentially reshaping what many expected to be a defining showdown of Barack Obama’s presidency.

The Employee Free Choice Act, also called “card check,” was dealt two blows last week. Whole Foods, Costco and Starbucks proposed a “third way” to reform labor laws that threatened to draw away conservative Democrats from card check.

Alternative ideas run the gamut. The retailers’ plan leaves out card check and mandatory arbitration but strengthens penalties, proposes fixed election dates to give employers less time to exert pressure and improves unions’ access to workers. Unions called it inadequate; business reaction was mixed.

No, there is no alternative.  Anything proposed so far is just nothing more than employers getting all the benefits….and the workers, as usual get the same as always….NOTHING!

Why are so many afraid of the “card check” thing?  The best one I have heard is that it will harm industry…….I think that management has done a better job of that then any union could have.

There is NO alternative!  Workers need to jump on this with both feet and start demanding that their voice be heard….since they coannot compete with the cash thrown at Congress….then talk to the streets.   Peace….Out!

A “Hooker” Tax

Obama is smiling…..GOP has not a clue…….in otherwords you have just about heard all the crap for one week….and now for something completely different (thanx Monty Python)…….It is Sexy Sunday…read on

Every state is scrambling to find the funds for the programs that the state’s need some have excellent ideas…some not so much.  New York is proposing a $10 “pole” tax on strip clubs.  And Nevada has their cute little idea.

A Nevada lawmaker introduced a bill to add a $5-a-session fee to the state’s prostitution industry. State Sen. Bob Coffin (D) said the measure would bring in about $2 million a year in revenue. Nevada’s legal brothel industry group supports the bill, arguing that it would guarantee the industry’s survival.

What happens in Las Vegas, Stays in Las Vegas….especially more of your money.

Recession Hits Hard

Times are difficult down at Berlin’s Pussy Club where a new all-in service is on offer: 70 euros for girls, drinks and food.

Like many of its counterparts, the brothel has been hit by the credit crunch and has had to come up with its own stimulus package for a trade that was legalised in Germany seven years ago.

The Belle Escort, another Berlin brothel, has never before faced problems, but the current financial crisis has triggered a sharp decline in clientele, said its owner Isabelle, without giving her surname.

Since 2001, prostitution in Germany has been legal and is relatively widespread, especially in big cities like Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, where women tout for business in the show windows of the infamous St Pauli district.

But social stigmatisation persists and Heitmann is concerned that prostitutes’ trials and tribulations are not being taken seriously.

Hoping for more success, many women are driven from the clubs to the kerbs to sell their bodies on their own terms.

An increasing number of men on a tight budget are also picking up prostitutes on street corners rather than in pricey brothels or “Eros Centres.”

Some places have been forced to shut their doors and in January, sex-shop owners and porn producers pushed for state aid, taking their lead from the crisis-hit auto and banking industries.

Erotic trade federation official Uwe Kaltenberg, said that “economic aid would be judicious.”

Damn!  I guess there is truly NO recession proof  jobs, huh?

Could Sex Be Addictive?

Teen sex is fraught with perils, and not just the physical kind.

While sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy are the two most talked-about risks, a new book says young people having sex may want to add this to their list of concerns: teenage sex is bad for the brain.

That’s what the authors of Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children are saying, anyways.

In a message clearly intended to promote abstinence in youth, the authors of Hooked say that young people should wait to have sex until their mid-20s, once their brains have developed fully, and are in a “lifelong relationship.”

Otherwise, neurochemicals released during sexual activity may cause problems later in life.

During sex, a woman’s brain produces oxytocin and a male’s brain produces vasopressin, hormones that cause the sexes to bond with each other.

Both sexes also experience a dopamine rush — dopamine is a hormone that makes you feel good and rewards you for exciting behaviour.

However, for young people whose brains are susceptible to pattern-forming behaviours, that may set them up for a lifetime of seeking the thrill and reward from sex, and make it hard for them to attach themselves long-term to a partner later in life.

Well, if one must be addicted, IU think that sex is much more preferable than, say, heroin.  Just a thought.

What To Do Is Do Nothing?

I recently listened to Peter Schiff on MSNBC on the direct that the government was taking and that it was the wrong thing to do.  I was interested in what he had to say and did a little research (yes, I Googled).

He wrote a piece in the WSJ in January of 2009 in which he said:

Governments cannot create but merely redirect. When the government spends, the money has to come from somewhere. If the government doesn’t have a surplus, then it must come from taxes. If taxes don’t go up, then it must come from increased borrowing. If lenders won’t lend, then it must come from the printing press, which is where all these bailouts are headed. But each additional dollar printed diminishes the value those already in circulation. Something cannot be effortlessly created from nothing.

By borrowing more than it can ever pay back, the government will guarantee higher inflation for years to come, thereby diminishing the value of all that Americans have saved and acquired. For now the inflationary tide is being held back by the countervailing pressures of bursting asset bubbles in real estate and stocks, forced liquidations in commodities, and troubled retailers slashing prices to unload excess inventory. But when the dust settles, trillions of new dollars will remain, chasing a diminished supply of goods. We will be left with 1970s-style stagflation, only with a much sharper contraction and significantly higher inflation.

The good news is that economics is not all that complicated. The bad news is that our economy is broken and there is nothing the government can do to fix it. However, the free market does have a cure: it’s called a recession, and it’s not fun, easy or quick. But if we put our faith in the power of government to make the pain go away, we will live with the consequences for generations.

If this were a free market economy that is exactly what would be happening in Washington.  I cannot remember who said this, and I apologize, but if a company is too big to fail then it is too big to exist.  I have said in the past, somewhere, sometime we have got to stop all this bailout stuff and just let somebody actually fail and then we can begin to see a recovery.

I found his approach very Libertarian and in some way very true……I also found that he was running for US Senate for the state of Connecticut.  I then wondered if his tone would change considerably if he was elected to the office.  There is a wealth of people with opinions on the economic crisis but they seem to give up those principles and fall in line with the party that they embrace.  Will a smart guy like Schiff be any different?

Oh, The Hypocrisy

Do any of you remember when Obama was not doing enough to come up with ideas to save the economy?  And now he is doing too much?

The best part though is that most of the media pundits keep being  opposed to the Obama approach to the economy by looking to the future, say 10-20-30 years down the road and what it will mean to our country.

What crap!  And I seriously mean CRAP!

Where were these hair brained, thick lipped dick brains decades ago when tax cuts and de-regulation was putting out country into the situation it is in now?  Just where were these forward looking a/holes then?

No one gave two shakes in hell about the children and grand children of the future then.  It was always about the instant gratification of the minute, never what it would mean to the future.  Something the American stupidity has always strived for, instant gratification and then blame whoever was handy when it went to hell.

In 2006, David Walker of the Bush Admin said, “The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it.”  And his words went mostly ignored.

The media instead of helping the viewer understand what all these policies and programs will do to effect him, they are focusing on whether the president smiles too much, frowns too much, is too pessimistic, or too optimistic or where he spends his time or what sport he likes, none of which has anything to do with the economy.

Maybe the public would be best served if the media would report the news and stop trying to invent the news….at least the interest of the people would be better erved, but I guess that is not in the corporation that owns the news best interests.  So as usual the facts are pushed to the back of the bus for some sensationalism.

What crap!  And these people accuse bloggers of being unprofessional…..